The online retail space has become a heavily saturated market due to its exponential growth, which has now reached 3.53 trillion US dollars in sales. With that much competition, it’s critical that online retailers cater to different customer types. There are four types of online shoppers that you should know about, each with different needs and expectations. Depending on your store and product types, you may have customers in all, one or a few categories. The key is to understand which categories to provide a superior service and stand out from the competition. Here are 4 customer types and how to improve the checkout process for each.
1. Convenience Oriented
Over 68% of shoppers prefer online shopping for its convenience. This customer type is focused on quick-payment systems, doesn’t like filling out forms and prefer value fast checkouts. Shopping needs to be quick, easy and convenient to convert them from browsing to a buying customer.
The checkout process is one of the key areas to convert them. Providing payment options that don’t require customers to enter in credit card information with each purchase is ideal. Avoid forcing customers to register or login prior to payment. Allowing them to continue as a guest will greatly improve conversions. Forms should only require essential fields and auto-populate information to speed up the purchase process. Mobile-friendly, one-click payment options are optimal for these customers.
2. Security Oriented
A major portion of the online market fall into this category, as 75% of online shoppers prefer not to give out their credit card information online. Security and safety are essential to these customers. You have to demonstrate and prove that your website can be trusted with their personal information. By displaying security badges and icons, you can improve the customer experience and relieve any security concerns. SSL certificates or badges from Verisign are a few ways to give customers validation and confidence that your checkout process is secure.
Another option is to provide a payment option that doesn’t require a credit card. Using a credit-card free option that doesn’t require a credit card at all, protects private information and simplifies the checkout process will reduce security concerns. Stripe is another one-step payment option that allows customers to save their credit card information on a secure platform connected to an email address.
3. Fiscally Responsible
These customers keep their finances simple, straightforward and organized. Impulsive shopping is not their forte but you can entice them with promotions, best priced options and value. Once in the checkout, make sure communication is clear and concise. Any information that is ambiguous, especially around cost, could lead to cart abandonment. They will always seek out the best-priced option so provide promotion codes to entice them to purchase from you. Lastly, offer a variety of payment options. The payment option needs to be compatible with their financing plan and if not, they may look elsewhere.
4. Secret Shopper
Privacy and confidentiality are key to getting this customer type to complete the purchase. Their online shopping habits are a secret and need measures in place to prevent others from discovering their purchase path. Whether they are hiding a shopping habit from a partner or purchasing a gift, these customers want to protect their privacy. Owning a credit card connected to another person can make it hard to purchase items that may be a surprise, personal or a secret. Payment options that don’t require credit cards such as e-gift cards, “buy now pay later” options or pre-paid credit cards are needed alternatives.
By adjusting to these different customer needs, you will be able to optimize the shopping experience for your customers. Improving one area of your checkout and payment method for a certain customer type can also enhance the experience for another. All together these improvements can help increase conversions and decrease cart abandonment.